The Department for Transport have released their latest tram and light rail statistics which show the number of passenger journeys made on English tram and light rail systems and it is another positive picture as there continues to be an increase in the figures – although systems have still not reached the same levels as they enjoyed before the pandemic severely impacted everything.
Once again the two systems covered by the statistics in London dominate things with over 50% of all journeys recorded on London Tramlink and the Docklands Light Railway. As with every single tramway or light rail system in England they have both enjoyed increases in their numbers too although London Tramlink is at the lowest end of the scale with “only” a 9.4% increase in passenger journeys. Overall across the whole of the country there has been a 23.3% increase in passenger journeys with the numbers rising to 211.5 million – a rise of 40 million.
The system which has seen the biggest increase in passenger number (percentage wise) is Nottingham Express Transit where there was a 58.2% to 14.4 million. Meanwhile Manchester Metrolink saw an increase of 38.5% (36 million), Sheffield Supertram up by 21.7% (8.4 million), Tyne and Wear Metro up by 20.6% (29.3 million), Docklands Light Railway increased by 19.6% (92.3 million), Blackpool Tramway up by 16.7% (4.9 million), West Midlands Metro increased by 14.9% (5.4 million) and London Tramlink was up by 9.4% (20.9 million).
Whilst the passenger numbers give a positive picture, its not quite the case with vehicle miles as this has seen a fall on all but three systems. This is most noticeable in Blackpool where 16.7% less vehicle miles were recorded in 2022/3 (0.5 million). At the other end of the scale the Docklands Light Railway increased their vehicle miles by 9.4% to 3.5 million. The only other system to increase was Manchester Metrolink which was up by 2.6% to 8 million. Nottingham Express Transit was the only system where vehicle miles were identical from last year.
Passenger revenue date is generally positive although (possibly unsurprising) this has fallen on the West Midlands Metro. The highest increase was on Nottingham Express Transit (67%) but considering they also saw the biggest rise in passenger numbers that is probably unsurprising.
All the statistics are in comparison to the previous year and so its probably not a huge surprise that there is an increase with the reduction in restrictions as more normality is reached.
Passenger journeys by system over the past five years are given below (2018/9 was the last full “normal” year). Please note Edinburgh Trams is also provided in the tables within the stats as a comparison.
Blackpool Tramway
2022/23 – 4.9 million
2021/22 – 4.2 million
2020/21 – 1.1 million
2019/20 – 4.8 million
2018/19 – 5.2 million
Docklands Light Railway
2022/23 – 92.3 million
2021/22 – 77.2 million
2020/21 – 39.7 million
2019/20 – 116.8 million
2018/19 – 121.8 million
Edinburgh Trams
2022/23 – 5.3 million
2021/22 – 2.8 million
2020/21 – 0.9 million
2019/20 – 7.1 million
2018/19 – 7.5 million
London Tramlink
2022/23 – 20.9 million
2021/22 – 19.1 million
2020/21 – 11.6 million
2019/20 – 27.2 million
2018/19 – 28.7 million
Manchester Metrolink
2022/23 – 36.0 million
2021/22 – 26.0 million
2020/21 – 10.3 million
2019/20 – 44.3 million
2018/19 – 43.7 million
Nottingham Express Transit
2022/23 – 14.4 million
2021/22 – 9.1 million
2020/21 – 3.4 million
2019/20 – 18.7 million
2018/19 – 18.8 million
Stagecoach Supertram
2022/23 – 8.4 million
2021/22 – 6.9 million
2020/21 – 2.8 million
2019/20 – 10.5 million
2018/19 – 11.9 million
Tyne and Wear Metro
2022/23 – 29.3 million
2021/22 – 24.3 million
2020/21 – 9.4 million
2019/20 – 33.1 million
2018/19 – 36.4 million
West Midlands Metro
2022/23 – 5.4 million
2021/22 – 4.7 million
2020/21 – 3.4 million
2019/20 – 8.0 million
2018/19 – 8.3 million
The 2022/23 figures have been impacted by severe technical issues leading to service suspension and industrial action.
UK total
2022/23 – 211.5 million
2021/22 – 174.3 million
2020/21 – 82.6 million
2019/20 – 270.6 million
2018/19 – 282.3 million
All data is for the 12 months until March 2023.
- Once again to avoid boring you with lines and lines of statistics this is just a summary of the date. If you want to integrate the full detail of what has been released these are linked from the DfT website at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/light-rail-and-tram-statistics-lrt